Reince Priebus Makes it Official: The Grand Old Party is Conservative

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Human Events:


Six months after he won a grueling battle against five opponents to become chairman of the Republican National Committee, Reince Priebus insists that the Republican Party is "part of the conservative movement" and that he has the "responsibility of creating an army of grassroots volunteers" from conservative Republicans.

He went on to say that the rise of the Tea Party movement is "invaluable to the conservative cause" and, in order to maintain the movement's support for the GOP, Republicans in Congress had to be "workhorses and not show horses" on reining in government spending.

In an exclusive interview with HUMAN EVENTS at party headquarters in Washington, D.C., the Wisconsin lawyer with the difficult-to-pronounce first name ("It's 'Ray-ince,") discussed his efforts at party-building, retiring the Republican National Committee's (RNC's) $25 million debt from the 2010 election cycle, and changes he is implementing as the party gears up to enhance its ranks in Congress and unseat President Obama in 2012.

The Wisconsin Way—and Staying Out of Primaries

"The Republican Party is part of the conservative movement," said Priebus, in effect closing a decades-old debate over whether the party should be centrist-leaning or right-leaning. "Increasingly, people identify with the Republican Party and its message of lower taxes, smaller government and greater freedom. So we have the responsibility of creating an army of grassroots volunteers from those people."

As to how best to do that, Priebus turns to his record as state Republican chairman of Wisconsin. Under his aegis, Badger State GOPers had a banner year last fall, picking up the governorship, a U.S. Senate seat and two new U.S. House seats, and winning control of both houses of the state legislature.

"We had the year we did because we understood our role as a party," recalled Priebus. "That meant putting together the best ground game possible, with more absentee ballots sent out and more calls made to voters than in any state in the country.

"And we had Republican candidates such as Ron Johnson [now senator] and Scott Walker [now governor], about whom people woke up, saying, 'I can't wait to vote for him.' " That's what we need to have nationwide in 2012."